Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Rogue 4]

She grinned. "Almost. We're going to go pick up three Imperial uniforms for a smooth insertion."

[Drake 53]

Takeshi nodded. "Good plan. Oh, and if you run into trouble, just flash this." He handed Layla the ID badge he used to get them this room. "Zan Forrano of Imperial Intelligence shouldn't be asked any questions."

[Rogue 4]

"Got it." Layla looked it over. Do these idiots really not put pictures on these things? Stupid Imperials... "Alright, Szen, Aston! Let's get going!" Lala said, heading out the door.

[Drake 53]

"Officers!" He said to the three retreating Revenants. When Layla, Aston and Szen turned around he added, "Take care of yourselves in there."

Tak spoke to the three of them but was looking only at Layla. He gave her a smile, a nod, and a salute.

[Rogue 4]

She returned the salute, offering him a small wink. "You too Lieutenant."

Let's both come back so we can figure this all out...

With that she led Szen and Aston out the door.

[Drake 53]

Tak watched them go.

Come back to me, Legs.

He turned and appraised the rest of the group. They all looked nearly identical in their black outfits, save for the hoods and scarves which would be put on later. He nodded.

"Looks like everyone is ready. Now, we're going to stick to the back alleys until we get closer to the main street outside of the southern entrance. Before we make our move, I'm going to comm Layla to see if they are in possition. While we wait, I want Jaim to jack a landspeeder. Any will do. Jya, I want you to pack it with some special gifts for the Imperials. Once we get a green light, I want that speeder crashed into the gates. And by 'crashed', I mean 'blown up'. Let's move out."

Tak pressed the button for the lift then they waited. "We should have just went when they did," he commented, with a sigh.

[Vergere 1]

Brier grinned. "What would have been the fun in that? You should take pride in doing stuff differently."

[Ayingel 24]

Szen followed Layla but had a hard time keeping up with her quick pace.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but...are you okay?"

[Princess 35]

Nima glanced down at her monitor. "So E4, do you want to tell me what kind of trouble that you droids got into before we left on the trip? I know that you were up to something. Artie seemed a little smugger than usual while we were doing pre-flight."

E4 tootled a singsong response.

"Oh? Really? What happens in the hangar stays in the hangar huh?"

[Rogue 4]

Layla looked over her shoulder at Szen curiously, then gave her a trademark Corellian grin. "Of course, Kilee. Something upset me before...but it doesn't really matter now does it? We have to focus on the task at hand. So...how do you feel about flirting with say...three Imperial officers? That's about one and a half a piece between the two of us." She smirked at Aston. "Unless you have a vested interest of course."

[Drake 53]

Tak smirked. "I would if timing weren't so important. It's almost 2100 and we need to be in place and ready for the changing of the guards."

The lift returned. Once they had all gotten aboard, the group rode it down to the third floor. Tak explained briefly that there was an exit staircase to the alley at the side of the hotel.

When the lift doors opened, the Lieutenant leaned out of the elevator and looked down both directions of hallway. There was no one there.

"Jaim, do you still have your bug jammer on?" he asked.

Adarra grinned and patted his pocket. "All the time."

"Good, let's go. Quickly."

They hurried down the corridor and made it to the stairwell. Tak quickly overrode the emergency alarm trigger and opened the door. He waved everyone else through, with Brier Fae leading the way. He followed through and closed the door silently behind him.

After descending the remaining three floors, the strike team assembled in the alley below. It, too, was devoid of anyone else, but Takeshi remained alert and aware. Afterall, there was still a bounty hunter lurking about.

Maybe I shouldn't have sent Layla off like that. Aston and Szen aren't prepared to face a fully armed and armoured bounty hunter, if he choses to take her now. Great Tak...send her out in the open with a Mandalorian hunter on the lose.

He decided that if anything went wrong, Layla would most likely contact him over the comm. Besides, despite the Imperial relay building being dangerous on its own, it would act as a defense against the bounty hunter...for now.

Tak pointed down the alley leading away from the main street. "This way."

[Ayingel 24]

"I can't say I wouldn't mind...Just to have a little fun." Szen smiled wickedly.

[Vergere 1]

Brier nodded and continued down the alley Tak pointed to, stopping them with a raised hand from time to time as she heard the Imperial style walk near them, before letting them continue forward. No smiles on her features, she comes to a halt after a while, waiting for more directions from Tak.

[Rogue 4]

"Oh good." Layla grinned wickedly, leading them down the street towards a cantina she had seen several of the Relay Station workers going to when they had switched shifts earlier. "This is going to be fun."

A few minutes later, pulling a uniform up over her body, Layla rubbed absently at her jaw. She looked almost sympathetic at the Imperial they had lured out, who had met unconsciousness by Kendall's fist. "Blast, Aston...in case nobody ever told you, you have a killer right hook. My jaw hurts just thinking about it."

They bound the bodies, dragging them into the basement of an abandoned building next door. By the time anyone found them they would be finished with this end of the mission. Layla and Szen pinned their hair up in a crisp Imperial fashion and headed off towards the relay building. "We're still sneaking in...these are in case they catch us offguard inside and start asking questions." She passed out ID's to each of them and turned to Szen. "Make the call, tell them we're in position."

[Drake 53]

Takeshi, Brier, Jaim, and Jya snuck through the maze of back alleys until finally coming to a halt in a dark side street across from and a couple buildings to the side of the street leading up to the upper tier entrance.

Lieutenant Beskar too a quick glance out into the street. It was ten minutes to 2100. Most of the people were either at home resting for their next day of work, or in the cantinas drinking away their earnings. He saw only a few pedestrians and the occasional landspeeder go by. Tak also spotted a deactivated and empty vehicle right next to their side of the street.

When he returned to the group, he said, "Jaim, Jya. There's a XP-291 landspeeder out on the street. Go turn it on and pack it with things to go boom. I want it ready to ram those gates within five minutes. We should be getting the call any second now. Oh, and try not to get spotted."

When the two went off to work, Tak turned to Brier. "I have a good feeling about this."

Edited September 12, 2007 by Drake

[Vergere 1]

She grinned, making her eyes crinkle in amusement. "Good. I'd be worried if you had a bad feeling." She rubbed her hands together. "Alright. So now we wait, then what?"

[Andy 60]

"Alright, the automated defence turrets should be going offline any minute." Aston whispered as he checked his chrono.

"This might be obvious, but I presume you took care of any backup supplies?" Layla asked.

"I locked the auxiliary power circuits off," Aston grinned, "if they want them back they'll have to slice their own system."

"Nice..." Layla started, "but Aston, the power lights are still on on those turrets..."

"Don't worry... I left them just enough power to run standby mode... As soon as they try to power up though the main power supply to the defence grid will overload. Hopefully frying the generators so they'll have no chance of getting them back on without the aux. power."

Layla threw a questioning look.

"I've done it before back on Coruscant. It's a long story."

[Mara 29]

Kaden was beginning to sympathize with Arlan; it had been a long while sitting in their fighters. He had to keep shifting his big frame around to get comfortable. At the same time, he checked on his belts and straps, making sure he was tight and secure, hoping that soon they would get a move on. He was beginning to cramp up, so he just ran through some checks again on his monitor, trying to keep his body moving, as much was allowed in the small cockpit.

Artie has it easy... all droid sockets are made the same to fit all the standard droids... Humans don't have it that easy...

[Rogue 4]

"Alright, well I trust your slicing skills Six." Layla gave him a grin. "Especially since they can do aerobatics around mine. Okay, Ten, make that call to Nine. I want those turrets down before the distraction begins. And use callsigns from here on out. We won't know when we're being overheard, and we don't want our other covers blown in case we need to use them again."

That way they won't be hitting Takeshi, and everyone else at the other gate...

[Ayingel 24]

sorry drake, using Tak for a second.

Szen got her comm out and got a hold of Takeshi.

"Ten to Nine."

"Go ahead Nine."

"Six confirmed turrets off line any time now. We will confirm overload, if all else watch for lights out."

[Drake 53]

"Copy that, Ten," Tak said over the comm. "Make your move when the fireworks start over here. Nine, out."

He looked back around the corner and saw that Jya had climbed out of the landspeeder and was walking back towards the side street with, what looked to be, a detonator trigger in her hand. Jaim slipped out of the driver's side a moment later and followed Jya.

When the two returned, Jaim said, "Speeder's jacked and packed with explosives. I have it set for remote driving."

"And I set the explosives for detonation on impact," Jya added.

Tak nodded. "Good work. Put your hoods and masks up. Now we wait for the lights out signal from the others."

They slipped the black hoods over their heads, covered their faces with the red bandanas, and waited for the cue from the others.

Edited September 12, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

"Okay Six, it's all you." Layla said, leaning over his shoulder.

"Just one more..." Aston mumbled. "Got it!"

The lights went out on the turrets, leaving the bay in darkness. "You are a gem. Now both of you stay close to me, and have your blasters ready just in case. Hopefully we won't have to use them." She turned to Szen, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "You know how to shoot right?"

[Ayingel 24]

"Of course. I was top of my class with shooting." Szen finally started getting excited about this mission.

It's finally happening...

Edited September 12, 2007 by Ayingel

[Rogue 4]

Layla grinned. "In that case, don't get trigger happy."

A full thirty seconds had passed since they'd given the signal. Come on Tak, what are you doing...?

[Drake 53]

As soon as the lights went out, Tak waved his team into action. Jaim was already bringing the landspeeder alive and driving it forward using a small joystick device attached around his wrist. They moved quickly behind the speeder as it gained speed down the street. Jaim turned the joystick to the left, causing the vehicle to do the same down the street leading up to the heavily guarded southern entrance.

Takeshi grinned beneath his mask. Already, he could see the half-dozen Stormtroopers and four guards, set to replace them for the night shift, milling around in confusion at their sudden lack of power. Tak already had his blaster and Ripper slug pistol in his hands and was ready to kill.

The four Revenants were aleady halfway up the street when Tak shouted, "Punch it!"

Jaim pushed forward hard on the joystick and the speeder responded in kind, lurching forward in a burst of speed. By the time the Stormtroopers looked up to see what was going on, it was too late. The vehicular bomb was already flying past them. One of the guards was too slow and got run down second before the speeder hit the gates.

The explosives went off in a spectacular ball of fire that engulfed the gates, burnt the unarmoured guards to a crisp, and sent the Stormtroopers flying into the street.

Before the Imperial soldiers had a chance to get up, Takeshi and the others were already firing at them, all the while shouting battle cries in their guise as revolutionaries.